A Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) chip can transmit information to a reader in response to an interrogation signal or polling request from the reader. The RFID chip can be incorporated in a tag (RFID tag) which is placed on a medical consumable item so that information can be passively captured. An RFID tag can be an active-type with its own power source, or a passive-type or battery-assisted passive type with no or limited power source. Both the passive-type and battery-assisted passive type will be referred to here as passive-type for sake of brevity. Placing an active-type RFID tag on some medical consumable items may not be feasible do to financial considerations, weight, etc. On the other hand, placing a passive-type RFID tag on medical consumable items may be more feasible; however, a power source will be needed to passively obtain information. Therefore, a device that can provide power to the RFID tag on the medical consumable item as well as obtain the information from the RFID tag would be beneficial for activity based costing and to ensure proper charging.
During medical procedures such as surgery, it is very important to avoid errors such as retaining the medical consumable item in the patient after conclusion, performing surgery on the wrong section of the body, performing the wrong surgical procedure or even performing surgery on the wrong patient. Such errors are commonly referred to as “surgical never events”. In order to avoid surgical never events, the position of a medical consumable item, a patient with respect to the medical consumable item, as well as the medical consumable items consumed are desirable information.